Tanya Mosley

Thompson argues the case marked a political turning point when white racial fear was sanctioned by law and leveraged by elites who learned how useful fear could be.

The book is titled Fear and Fury, the Reagan 80s, the Bernie Goetz shootings, and the rebirth of white rage.

Heather Ann Thompson, welcome to Fresh Air.

I want to start with Bernie Goetz.

He was acquitted of attempted murder for the shootings.

He served less than a year on the gun charge.

And he essentially returned to life in New York.

Right now, he's in his 70s.

He's still living in the city.

He's still giving interviews.

He defends what he did.

But you actually decided not to interview him for this book.

How come?

And what I want to say to that, too, what's so interesting is even right now, as I introduced you and introduced the story,

I didn't even name the four boys or the 14.

Yeah.

I want to get more into the young men and who they were and what you found out through your research.

But I want to know what you found out about Goetz, who he was before the day he shot those teenagers.

And that viewpoint, that narrative, I mean, New York in 1984, just to put ourselves there, you articulated it quite well, but it was genuinely a dangerous place.

Crime was high.